My name is Jay O'Connor and Urban Tribalism is my style of art. No-one does what I do, and remaining perfectly unique is were I thrive. An avid skateboarder, I am influenced by graffiti culture, ancient ruins, world cultures, tattoos, and mysticism. Making new iconic imagery through sacred designs is my voice. "My work draws from global tribal culture and remixes it into something new and original." I have sat and drank kava with Vanuatu tribal chiefs who have great wisdom beyond their years. An old blackfoot campground is where I dwell with a medicine wheel hidden in the prairie grass. This is the place where my ancestors have given me the sacred name "Shaded Cloud" and at this time in my life this is where I make my art. I will see my work integrated into thousands of paintings, textiles, murals, architecture, furniture, clothing, and tattoos (I am not a tattoo artist). I started my art career 20 years ago as the tagger for our sk8 crew Team Sacrifice. Skateboarding taught me that I can create whatever I want in life if I just commit %100 to making it happen. So I use what's around me, symbols combined with photography, illustrations, and found objects to make art that makes people feel connected as a species and as a tribe. All human cultures have one important thing in common; we all huddle together in our caves when shit really goes down. Deep down we respect each other and see the need to elevate our consciousness. And we will make time to learn from each others ideologies, and sacred ways. More connected than ever with new social networking, we are expanding global awareness. Technology is what will propel us to be a closer people. Technology fascinates me and I am an entrepreneur in wireless communications. So understanding frequencies and spectrums is natural to me and I reflect it into my art as much as possible. Other wireless dimensions are all around, your your eyes wont see it, this is that's why EVP is so compelling to me. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what we are technically capable of doing as a species. "The majority of human kind is increasingly populating cities. Many believe that this signifies the death of ancient tribal ways, but it is just the birth of Urban Tribalism." Thank you for stopping by and enjoy my art! Sincerely, Jay the Shaded Cloud jasonurbantribalism.org